Research Interests

Our research lies at the interface of Organic Chemistry, Nanomaterials and Nanomedicine, We develop new conjugation reactions that are general, efficient, can accommodate ligand diversity, maintain ligand bioaffinity, and give bioactive and stable interfaces. We have studied extensively the reactivities of perfluoroaryl azides as highly reactive singlet nitrene precursors as well as electron-deficient azides in metal catalyst-free cycloaddition reactions. We use these reactions to functionalize surfaces and nanomaterials, and synthesize antibiotic-conjugates and glyconanomaterials to target bacteria. Graphene functionalization is another focus of our research. We developed robust chemistry to functionalize pristine graphene, and to synthesize graphene composite materials for catalysis applications.